Peek into the critics' screening room

January 02, 2004|By Allison Benedikt, Tribune staff reporter.

Generally watching a movie at the screening room is enjoyable. We don't have to sit through 20 minutes of lame commercials before the movie, there are no crying babies, only the rare annoying whisper, and there are speakers in the bathrooms in case that super-sized Coke takes its toll (my esteemed colleague Mark Caro informs me that in the men's bathroom there is also a sticker of Jane Fonda affixed to the bottom of the urinal). It's an intimate atmosphere--a 20-by-8-foot screen and only 49 seats, with on average about half of the seats filled, depending on the movie's draw--but that intimacy, though preferred, can cause the spread of a very serious behavioral disease: Honest Emotional Reaction Disorder, commonly known as HERD.

HERD most often inhibits ones ability to laugh out loud at a movie screening when others aren't laughing or convinces one to fake-laugh when others are. I do often think it would be better to review a movie after watching it in a public theater, popping M&Ms with my fellow man, anonymous and free to laugh or cry or cover my eyes whenever the hell I feel the urge.

The movie ends, the lights come up and most everyone stays for the credits. All of the credits. Then we file out, taking the elevator together but not talking about the movie we just saw. (Sometimes we don't even make eye contact.) There are no crowds to fight and no parking garage to hike through, which actually gives me space to reflect on the movie I just saw. For me, the seven-minute walk back to Tribune Tower is quality post-movie alone time--a chance to gather my thoughts and fantasize about the day I may never again have to review the likes of "Rugrats Go Wild!"

Oh yeah, one other thing: Movies at the Screening Room are free. Hands down, the best job perk I've ever had.